The merger promises to bring sophistication to e-books, which are currently ruled by a file format, EPUB 3, that leaves little opportunity for innovation. This has particularly been a source of irritation for the poetry community, which has felt unimpressed by e-books' ability to properly format work that is often visually complicated.

Bringing the organization that creates the standards for HTML (the most recent iteration of which is HTML5) into the book publishing fold should help bring the code behind e-books in-line with what consumers currently expect from digital content: a robust multi-media experience that looks good on every platform, be it an e-reader, the web, or an app.